1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is liquid fuel burners which ignite and burn atomized liquid fuel within a flame tube.
2. Background
Several different types of liquid fuel burners are well known in the art, with each type having arguable advantages over the other types. One type of liquid fuel burner is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,338, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. While various aspects of this type of liquid fuel burner have undergone improvements over the last 25 years, e.g., improvements to the atomizer are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,076 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,904, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety, one persistent issue is scorching of the discharge end of the flame tube. Ultimately, over an extended period of use, such scorching may result in damage to the flame tube, requiring replacement of the flame tube. Of course, if the liquid fuel burner is used in an area where spare parts are readily available, replacement of the flame tube will not normally present a significant inconvenience. But, when the liquid fuel burner is used in the field and spare parts are hard to come by, a damaged flame tube can remove the burner from operation if no spares are available. The present invention, therefore seeks to reduce or eliminate scorch damage at the discharge end of the flame tube.